Happy 200th Haysville; Remembering 150th

All Maryann Fisher needs in life, she says, is “a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom.”

Summer is a busy time for the Haysville lady, when she works during the week making luscious angel food cakes from scratch to sell at the Jasper Farmer’s Market.

But then, with a dozen egg yolks left from each cake, what to do? Make homemade egg noodles!

She sells out nearly every week.

Maryann chats with market-goers, recalling tidbits of her life in Haysville, one of the two oldest towns in Dubois County.

The State of Indiana, after all, isn’t the only one celebrating a bicentennial in 2016. Haysville and Ireland also have 200th birthdays this year.

Maryann was born in Portersville, just a few miles down the road from where she would spend her adult life. In 1956, she married Donald Fisher, the boy who tossed paper wads at her in school to get her attention.

“I married a good man,” Maryann reminisces. “He was involved in the community and the church. He’s been gone for 16 years now. I can’t imagine where all the time has gone.”

Her good man worked hard to support his family while Maryann kept the home fires burning. Together they raised five children, Steven, Diana, David, Mark and Anissa. They bought a home on two acres at the top of a hill on the outskirts of town.

“We had a big garden,” she reflects.

But that garden came with lots of initial work. The land had old fruit trees and rolled fences and required lots of preparation. “We changed the whole lay of the land,” she notes. “But after that, sometimes at supper time, everything on our plates came from our two acres.”

But both were also very involved in their community.

A member of the church council, Donald Fisher was also one of the first members of the Haysville Ruritan Club. Organized in 1960 “To Improve and Better the Community,” by the time Haysville’s sesquicentennial celebration in 1966 rolled around, the organization had already established a Community Volunteer Fire Department (1962), laid the groundwork for a water distribution system (1965), was instrumental in procuring a branch of Dubois County Bank (1962) and a rural Post Office (1964). The Haysville Ruritans recruited a barber to open a shop in town, organized a Little League program, sponsored boys to Hoosier Boys State and girls to the Governor’s Youth Conference, and awarded scholarships to deserving students in their community.

Along with the Haysville Retail and Professional Association that organized in 1964, they assumed responsibility for street lights, and installed road signs. In addition, every member had his blood type on file, ready to donate in the event of any disaster.

Maryann Fisher was no slouch either, when it came to community involvement. She is the last surviving member of the Haysville Sesquicentennial Committee.

The committee organizing Haysville’s 150th birthday bash consisted of Chairman Harold Huebner, Co-Chairman Edgar Nigg, Treasurer Irvin Skaggs and Assistant Treasurer Arlo Eichmiller. Maryann served as secretary.The 150th birthday party stretched over several days, Maryann recalls, but the time went so fast, memories are a bit blurry.

Held in the field behind Walter Seitz’s Phillips 66 station, Seitz allowed a concrete slab to be poured to form a dance floor (Walter also donated land for the first Fire Station, Maryann adds. John Fuhrman, his great-grandson, is the current fire chief).

Jasper band director Bill Balsbaugh provided calliope music and Sleepy Marlin and the Boys (now known as The Marlins) and a German band entertained as well. A queen contest, Brothers of the Brush beard contest and a sesquicentennial Belles style show were part of the festivities, as well as dancing every evening and children’s carnival rides. Barbecued and fried chicken were served nightly, as were hamburgers and homemade turtle soup. A beer garden was available to wash all that scrumptious food down.

The Haysville Sesquicentennial celebration culminated in a Grand Parade, which started atop the long hill, near the Fishers’ abode.

The Grand Marshal was Haysville resident John Stamm who, at age 87, was one of two living veterans of the Spanish American War in Dubois County.

In all, it was estimated that more than 15,000 people attended the celebration. “It makes a person feel so good to remember the good things,” Maryann smiles softly.

Proceeds from the Sesquicentennial were used to purchase land and develop the current day Haysville Park. A concrete marker was installed under the flagpole at Haysville Park, emblazoned with the committee members’ names and others who were instrumental in the Park’s creation.

Maryann Fisher’s is among them.

Haysville is her beloved home.

“I can’t ever move,” Maryann declares. “All my memories are here.”

And, for the most part, they’re good ones.

A few tidbits of Haysville history Taken from Wilson’s History of Dubois County, 1910, and other local sources

Haysville was first settled on land owned by Joseph Kelso. The first town plat is said to have been laid out by Judge Moses Kelso, but has been lost to time. Judge Willis Hays donated part of the land on which Haysville is now situated.

Judge Hays also built the first church, a Methodist Episcopal, and was its minister.

By the mid-1800s, Lutheran churches dominated Haysville and Harbison Township. St. Paul’s Church, German Evangelical Lutheran, was begun in the early 1840s and remains the largest congregation in Harbison Township to this day.

Haysville grew and prospered, in part because of its proximity to the Buffalo Trace, also called the Governor’s Trace or Vincennes Trace, which was the first all land path to Dubois County. Along this path, hundreds of pioneers and emigrants traveled in search of land to settle. Haysville was also close to the White River.

The community of Haysville was served by several one-room schools over the past 200 years, Krodel School, Hope School, Huebner School, Base Line School, Hoffman School and the St. Paul’s Parochial School.

Dr. William Sheritt was the first recorded physician who practiced in Haysville. The first recorded business was a wool-carding shop.

When Haysville was settled, Dubois County was largely a forest. Unbroken woods stretched from one end of the county to the next. Early pioneers had their hands full clearing the hardwood forests for homesteads and road-building was slow in coming. But, since the early 1800s, Picnic Day was an annual event, during which folks would
come from miles around to socialize.

Picnic Day is still alive and well in Haysville, Indiana.

The Haysville Bicentennial Celebration (54th Annual Haysville Sommerfest) kicks off Thursday evening at Haysville Park just west of US 231 in Haysville. Festivities continue through Sunday.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Thursday, June 30
5 p.m. – Food booths open
6 p.m. – Opening of Bicentennial Balloon Launch
6 p.m. – Beer Garden opens
6:30 p.m. – Brothers of the Brush/Ladies of the Bustle
7 p.m. – DJ/Music (Main Stage)
7:30 p.m. – Opening of the Time Capsule (Park Stage)
11 p.m. – Music ends/Beer Garden closes

Friday, July 1
4 p.m. – Food booths, Beer Garden and Food lines open
5 p.m. – Kids Inflatable
5 p.m. – WBDC Cornhole Tournament of Champions
6 p.m. – Wiffle Ball Tourney
6 p.m. – Bake off Winners
6 p.m. – DJ/Music
6:30 p.m. – Kiddie/Adult Pedal Tractor Pull and Garden Tractor Pull
7:30 p.m. – Log Sawing Contest
7:30 p.m. – Tug of War
9 p.m. – Bands on Main Stage until midnight

Saturday, July 2
7 a.m. – Run
7 a.m. – BBQ Contest (until 5 p.m.)
8 a.m. – Music
8 a.m. – Bike Race
8:30 a.m. – Wiffle Ball Tourney
9 a.m. – Kids Games (until 11 a.m.)
10 a.m. – Beer Garden Open
10 a.m. – Antique Tractor Show/Car Show
11 a.m. – Tasting Event for BBQ Contest (until 1 p.m.)
11 a.m. – Vendor Fair
1 p.m. – Band (until 5 p.m.)
3 p.m. – Local Corn Hole
4 p.m. – Food Line open
6 p.m. – HAYWIRE (WBDC Country Showdown House Band)
10 p.m. – Fireworks
10 p.m. – Raffle
10:30 p.m. – Band (until 1 a.m.)

Sunday, July 3
9:30 a.m. – Combined Church Service
11 a.m. – Beer Garden open
1 p.m. – Parade
4 p.m. – Time Capsule and Closing Centennial